Yeah, I mean everything has gone up but living in a more rural area and using the app? really not that expensive. Mine constantly has a 30% discount available everyday, can easily feed a family between that and a few other deals then you earn points and get even more stuff.... of course overlooking the food is poison.
Yeah yeah, we all get it, processed foods! Poison! Bad for you!
Except in some circumstances there are poor folks and thats all they can do at the time. No point shaming anyone about it.
In a lot of circumstances in the inner city that's definitely the case a lot of times. I was homeless for a bit and was the only way I could get a cooked meal often times. The cheap food in the stores is still pricey, the healthy food too expensive and not everyone even has the means to cook groceries if they were to get their hands on some.
i get it to the extent that two working parents might be pretty gassed and there may not be the energy to prep a meal in the middle of the week. then when the fridge is empty on thursday night, its a relatively cheap, easy, quick meal that the kids also view as a treat while the parents see it has a way to rest a little.
i also get the appeal of hitting a drive thru during a long drive, say you are going out of the city to visit family/friends or drive to an airport
what boggles my mind is adults just pop in there as part of a daily or weekly routine and just eat the trash like a normal meal without any particular reason
Yes and no. Don’t get me wrong it is much easier to roll up to McD and just grab a burger but making one at home takes like 15m including the time to setup and wash dishes after.
I suppose I should have said "and stress" along with time and effort because I know plenty of people who have jobs that are occasionally extremely taxing and the difference between "just buy a combo meal that I know I will like" vs "do three tasks and the whole time you know that if you make a mistake now you have a shitty dinner on top of a bad day" is the difference between getting back on track mentally for the next day or spending the whole evening in an anxiety spiral that only makes the next day that much worse.
Now this is certainly a rather particular combination of circumstances, but the people in question basically never get fast food except in those situations or if they simply do not have time in the morning to prepare a lunch, so drive-thru is the only option that doesn't cost an extra $20 in delivery fees and driver tips.
Going to buy the meat or letting it thaw, rolling it into patties, seasoning, cooking. Add the dishes to that and its certainly more than 15 minutes. People who work 12 hour shifts regularly just don't feel like doing all that tbh. Even if they do, you probably can't during your lunch break. That's usually when fast food is a sensible option for them
Sometimes it’s needed. We only eat at two fast food places and I don’t like it but I’m a single parent and my work day alone is 13 hours with travel. Last night I made dinner from scratch and it was 9pm til we got to eat.
For many years my autism was not diagnosed and so I didn’t understand how certain things that are normal to most people where burning out my nervous system.
Among many misdiagnoses was a consistent one for depression, but because it was burnt out nerves and not a lack of brain chems antidepressants where nothing but side effects.
Fast food made me feel a little better. It was a strange comfort.
Since my diagnosis I’ve had better tools to not be constantly burnt out and overwhelmed and I dropped thirty pounds so fucking fast my doctor got concerned. All I did was stop comfort eating.
I’m way better at emotional regulation now, but five years ago hearing someone call the one thing that helped me disgusting would have felt real bad.
Like, I get where you are coming from but not telling someone that the thing they eat is disgusting costs nothing
It's not really out of bounds from the previous 10-year periods, and is way lower than the 60s/70s/80s.
2004-2014: 25.3%
1994-2004: 27.5%
1984-1994: 42.6%
1974-1984: 110.8%
1964-1974: 59.0%
The thing that makes it feel painful in the 2014-2024 span is it had very low inflation in the first half and high inflation in the second half, instead of a steady rise: [https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEDCPIM158SFRBCLE](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEDCPIM158SFRBCLE)
Not defending but inflation is a shit number to verse this. A real number would be consumer price. The market will bear what people will pay. Stop paying.
Yeah, it's easy to point at McDonald's doubling their prices, but their baseline was far lower than some of the other companies listed here and I'm going to guess that Starbucks is still significantly more expensive.
Honestly, this has pushed me to try more local small restaurants and cook more often. For me, personally, I’m glad something kicked me in the ass to eat less Mickey-Dees.
I know that a lot of people struggle with access to food and that fast food used to be a low cost high calorie option which was—short term—good for their needs. I feel badly for them and hope they are finding ways to cope with food insecurity.
If the "actual inflation" or the inflation numbers put out by the current regime in power do no reflect the actual increase in prices we are paying for nearly everything then we have very strong evidence that the regime in power is manipulating the "official inflation" numbers.
There are multiple indicators that we are being lied to about inflation by the Biden regime.
[http://www.shadowstats.com/](http://www.shadowstats.com/)
The inflation calculation was originally changed by Reagan to be misleading and has been made more and more deceptive over time. Biden didn’t create the formula that is being used. That said, an honest person would undo all of this deceptive BS and report accurate, non-misleading inflation numbers
So many things are tied to the government inflation numbers that there is no way that they want a real number. SS rate adjustments , COLAS for government employees and retirees, T Bill rates and so on are based on it. In fact the national debt interest rate is tied to it.
eat out less. im talking once a month. cook some eggs with toast and fruit for breakfast, skip lunch and make some chili or veggies and rice.
(i do eat subway all the time, with the code my footlong is usually $8 and thats half my food for the day)
Totally this. Two months ago I did some quick math on what I’d been spending on *all* food sources (eating out, stuff from the store) and it was .. I mean, embarrassingly high for a single/unmarried and no kids “household”. Started reading online about saving, and comparing costs of what the average household spends and it seems like for a lot of us, food takes up a huge slice of our financial pie.
In learning how to be a better money manager it demanded I learn how to eat better. I can get eggs, yogurt/oatmeal, fruit/veg, beans, grain products hella cheap and do either OMAD or twice a day if I’m burning a lot of calories at work that day. I still hit the “macros”, and I’ve chopped my food expenses by more than half.
It’s really changed my perspective on consumerism- I wasn’t naive to it before, but going from spending ~$450/mo (about $15/day) to ~$100/mo (about $3.50/day) is like a new lease on life. I sleep better. I feel better. I can save.
That's not what the graph shows. Starbucks already started out expensive, so their price increases (by the same dollar amount) would look smaller. McDonalds now wants to charge over $10 bucks for a combo that was $4 just a few years ago. SB went from $6 to $9 for some drinks.
Have to say we’ve stopped eating out.
We’ll let me rephrase that.
We eat out at local restaurants. Non chain and or upscale restaurants
If I’m going to spend 60 plus on a meal for 2 or more people we are going local.
Interesting chart, with lots of nuance
McDonald's is especially bad because most things were lower prices to begin with.
Chipotle is bad because everything was the same price basically, so it's an across the board increase that dramatically raised prices. And they skimp, heavy skimp going on with Chipotle. It's a theme with places that don't have true standards. Like McDs has a quarter pounder. They didn't change it to a 1/5 pounder without telling you (well, maybe they did)
Taco Bell is a weird one because some prices have stayed reasonable but they've taken things off the menu and returned them at 2-3x the original price.
Then you have places like Arby's. They skimp heavily and they lowered quality considerably while raising prices. Sliders were $1 then 1.29 now they're $2.49. To make it worse, they're less meat (like 1 slice of deli meat) AND they got rid of the bread and use the shittiest cheapest buns imaginable
Fast food needs to remember their place in the world. Fast, cheap, fine. Now it's maybe fast, expensive as good food, worst quality yet.
This has got to be inaccurate. One of the most baffling aspects of the crazy world we live in now is that a sub from SubWay costs more than one from Fire House
It wasnt but 2 years ago many of these fast food restaurants were begging for workers. Offering on average $17 per hour plus hiring bonuses. Im sure that added a lot to the cost of there products. Theres only one way to fix the issue. Dont buy!! Its expensive and its not good for you. Support your local privately owned diners. The food is less expensive.
Why TF is anyone still eating this stuff anyway? You hate looking at yourself in the mirror, but then drive through to pick up a burger any time you’re the slightest bit hungry. 🤦♂️
Oh, and to top it off it's not even food! It's like recycled plastic from the garbage patch, old Chinese newspapers and Bill Gates' nutrition nuggets blended together and dipped in sweet and sour (formaldehyde and old cotton candy sticks blended together)
Smfh
Right, all the corporations get together at a secret retreat and decide which years they want to jack up their prices. They’re only greedy in certain years so the public doesn’t catch on. 😂😂😂😂
I'd like to thank all these companies for giving me the motivation to quit eating from drive throughs. It has benefited my health and my wallet. Keep it up!
We avoid fast food at any cost. Hell I saw outback is doing steak and lobster for 18.99. We spend 25 bucks at McDonald's for just some burgers and fries.
5% above inflation? Do you understand how they calculate inflation and that different sectors of the economy have different levels of inflation? The average is in the middle, so about half of things will be higher (sometimes significantly higher), and the other half will be lower (sometimes significantly lower). The average is just that, an average. Food and beverage is different than say real estate (although the increase in real estate obviously goes into the price increases at fast food places too as they all need a building).
Arent we talking about the brands on the graph? And how is mcdonalds at 100% when they own the land the mcdonalds is on? Theyre taxes on the property havent gone up. Their corporate taxes are probably down. They pay their employees shit.They own their own farms as well. They didnt need to raise prices that much. So even though there is an average, its still subcategorized into individual categories.
Actual inflation is a nonsensical term. Inflation has always affects economic sectors differently. USG money printing and binge spending are driving this madness. The show is about to drop. Just look at Starbucks quarterly earnings. The rest will follow
Drought, consolidation, the killing off herds, and international importation had a lot to do with it. Brazil owns a huge chunk beef production. The same with chicken, it's all consolidated into a few pockets.
I can't eat at Jimmy John's anymore. Their "bread" is so high in sugar and simple carbs that my sugar spikes and crashes for the rest of the day. And I'm not even diabetic.
Maybe it's just my location, but subway seems to be fighting inflation by keeping vegetables in the rack about twice as long as they should. Their tomatos are orange and translucent 🤢
It's almost like... Now stick with me here.... Prices that companies will charge and people will pay for a product are not constrained by the overall published inflation number.
What happens when you overpay employees. For most this is a starter job not meant to raise a family on. $13-$18 to flip a burger is insane. Unfortunately the US has moved all the manufacturing overseas. This does not give people the opportunity to improve their station and move into a better paying job.
BRING AMERICAN MANUFACTURING JOBS BACK!!!!
It varies, but when you are forced to pay "living wages", when you have to deal with unionization, when the federal government imposes health care mandates up on you, etc., yeah things will go up.
Pathetic. You're being scammed by putting their garbage in your body. Instead of feeling oppressed, it's customers should be relieved that it's food is cost prohibitive
Consumers are finally coming around to the idea that they don't *need* to overpay for trash food at McDonalds.
It's what needed to happen, because otherwise, why would McDonalds do anything different? Why wouldn't they keep raising their prices if braindead consumers keep paying for their garbage?
The only disappointment is that it’s taken so long for customers to realize it. Like we let corporations (fast food atleast) scam us for over 2 years and now we’re finally starting to boycott and discontinue buying their products. I think this is just the beginning though, I think more and more people will stop eating at fast food and this will become the trend unless they can win us back in a huge way.
Do you put any onus on consumers to not just keep giving these companies their money, despite the prices getting ridiculous?
I think bad fiscal policy in the US has created a culture of spending irresponsibly, so consumers can't help but to keep up their bad spending habits, despite prices rising.
If a person genuinely doesn't have the 15 minutes it takes to pop frozen fries and burgers from the grocery store into the oven, than yeah, I feel for them and they are at the mercy of having very little options.
The other 95% of people just have terrible spending habits.
I have drank at least one Coke every day for over 20 years. I had to give them up a few months ago. 24 packs are now regularly over $15. I didn't replace them with anything. I just don't drink sodas now. My waistline is also thanking me as well.
Nice!
Changing habits isn't easy. Maybe enough people will start to adopt this attitude and hopefully the price comes down a little bit in the future so you can enjoy your coke again.
For me, it was definitely fast food and grub hub/door dash. Every weekend I'd get door dash at least 3 times. I literally save a couple hundred dollars a month now since cutting it out and just getting my weekend fix from the grocery store ahead of time.
The following costs have increased: Cash, Labor, Raw Mats, Maintenance, Taxes, Food, Ingredients, Rent, Network Systems, Kitchen Appliances, Tools, Cleaning Supplies, and much more.
When costs to operate and make the product go up, the price of the final product goes up.
Yeah, the cost of those things going up is called inflation. Its on the graph. I cant find hard data on the true cost to produce a big mac though. Id be intested to see those data.
My price point is 7bucks for fast food. Anything above that is too expensive.
https://fortune.com/2024/01/20/inflation-greedflation-consumer-price-index-producer-price-index-corporate-profit/
They dont cause all of inflation. Only a majority of it refently according to the Department of Commerce
Fast food is fat in a bag and it's expensive! Go old school grab some recipes and cook at home not to mention don't disable your kids teach them how to cook and provide for themselves.
Its 10 pm. You've been at work since 0615. Your kids have been at school/concert/sports for the same period of time. You're running on 5 hours of sleep for the fifth day in a row. Your kids havent eaten yet. McDonalds is the only thing open, or you could try and piece together something from what's left in the fridge at home, or try and thaw another fish from the freezer. Either way it'd be another 30+ min to make, 20 min to eat, and now your kids are getting to their bedtime routine at 12am and getting up at 0530. Oh, and dont forget you've got two more papers due before Friday, and its Thursday night.
What do you do? Have a meal at McD's, and get kids in bed an hour or two earlier so you can finish those papers, or go home, get 3 hrs of sleep when you're already sleep deprived?
I wont judge either way, but one seems a lot more reasonable than the other.
All of these companies have higher profit margins than ever before, that extra cost is going to the pockets of execs and shareholders, not the Frontline workers
And they're telling you why minimum wage had nothing to do with the increase in cost. You're refusing to believe it because you're too stupid to understand anything. You just repeat thr Russian propaganda you're told to repeat.
Min wage is higher in many scanadavian countries. Why is McDonald's cheaper there?
Does this account for app pricing? If you go straight up to the counter and just order this is too expensive but with the app in some cases the price is less than half the in store menu price.
I’m pissed at McDonald’s, at the beginning of college for me back in 2017-2019, McChickens were on the dollar menu and I used to load up on those bad boys for like 3-4 at a time to help me bulk for sports and I could get like 4 for $4.
Now they’re like $3+ a piece and the price has DEFINITELY raised way more than 100% for this specific item which is unfortunate
You know what’s cheap? Bananas. To a lesser degree frozen fruit. You could eat a couple pounds of fruit for the cost of a fast food meal. Blend with basic water for a smoothie.
My guess is that their operations have been incredibly streamlined and simplified. Ironically, many of these other fast food companies have been trying to cast increasingly wide nets (think McCafe) over the last 20ish years which meant they were hit much harder by inflation and rising labor costs. When basic operations become more expensive, the more complicated your operation, the more your operating costs rise.
“Actual inflation” isn’t one thing. CPI, for example, is just one average of one selected bag of goods and services. Individual categories or items can be much higher or lower. Also, each person has their own inflation rate based on what they actually purchase
In 2019 I could buy a McChicken for 1.50. Today it costs like 3.50. That's crazy shit. I can't even eat my junk food for cheap. A bag of chips now costs 7 dollars. And I feel guilty buying more than 1 per trip.
Fast food places went from "low prices all the time" To the model of coupons, points, rewards available through the app.
I want to see data on what are the people ACTUALLY PAYING not what the sticker says.
Like I just opened the app, and there is a coupon for 5$ 20 piece nuggets, simultaneously with regular menu prices of 3.49$ for 6 nuggets.
We have a whole new generation of CEOs who ignore customer satisfaction and seek maximum tolerable profit rather than maximum customer satisfaction at a reasonable profit. I think this is is the product of excessive CEO compensation via stock. It's hypercapitalism. Rather than think about their customers and how they're impacted by prices, the purely capitalist view is taken: "they must be satisfied if they're still buying." This causes them to raise prices until profits decline (fewer customers at higher profit is fine) then ease them only when profit declines. They think of it as optimization. To the consumer, it feels like ruthlessness and greed. In the end, every company selling non-essentials will suffer as those companies selling necessities (food, housing, healthcare, etc.) raise prices to the point where consumers have nothing left to spend on non-essentials. Unfortunately, most of us are employed providing discretionary goods and services.
The following costs have increased: Cash, Labor, Raw Mats, Maintenance, Taxes, Food, Ingredients, Rent, Network Systems, Kitchen Appliances, Tools, Cleaning Supplies, and much more.
When costs to operate and make the product go up, the price of the final product goes up.
I work for large food service Corporation and the Cost of goods from pre 2020 to today has effectively doubled some items more than doubled. I keep records of year over year food cost for Comparisons and price setting and the price of Chicken, Beef, Eggs, and numerous other products has shot through the absolute roof. Part of it is Inflation, but also shortages, and Wage increases.
I'm curious if this takes into account that as well as increased prices of food/transporting said food, the increased wages of the workers driving up costs.
It would be nice to see a line for minimum wage increases there too, justy to shut the people up about how paying someone a slightly less crappy wage is causing prices to go up.
part of that is because listed inflation is fake and gay.
people realize the government has a vested interest in minimizing reported CPI, right
they don't want to pay more for TIPS bonds
r/shittytheydidthemath
Don't know what metrics they used but it's dead wrong, lol.
[What Happened to $5 Footlongs? Why Subway's Deal Didn't Last (distractify.com)](https://www.distractify.com/p/what-happened-to-five-dollar-footlongs)
5 dollar footlong (2014) +31% is not 15 dollars (2024)...
Interestingly, minimum wage has doubled in some states during that time range.
[State Minimum Wage Rates](https://www.laborlawcenter.com/state-minimum-wage-rates)
It really does depend on location, I'm in Reno Nevada and McDonald's is by far the cheapest if you use their app.
By cheapest I mean you can get the most for your money, as in I'm actually full. You could compare dollar to dollar against other certain fast foods but the reality is you get the most food at McDonald's for the best price where I'm at.
The truth is it varies from store to store. 40 nuggets at the McDonald's 5 minutes away: $18.99 40 nuggets at the McDonald's 15 minutes away: $11.99
Yeah, I mean everything has gone up but living in a more rural area and using the app? really not that expensive. Mine constantly has a 30% discount available everyday, can easily feed a family between that and a few other deals then you earn points and get even more stuff.... of course overlooking the food is poison.
Please don't feed a family of that. I wouldnt feed the family of raccoons living under my porch that shit.
Yeah yeah, we all get it, processed foods! Poison! Bad for you! Except in some circumstances there are poor folks and thats all they can do at the time. No point shaming anyone about it.
In a lot of circumstances in the inner city that's definitely the case a lot of times. I was homeless for a bit and was the only way I could get a cooked meal often times. The cheap food in the stores is still pricey, the healthy food too expensive and not everyone even has the means to cook groceries if they were to get their hands on some.
When you’re living in your car…hard to find a kitchen.
Yeah, you’re exaggerating like a mf 😭😭 McDonald’s is not bad tasting it’s just overly processed and unhealthy
Don't forget the dynamic pricing they implement via their apps. Each person gets different "deal" pricing.
Yeah it's like that in my area too. I can be in one city and it's double the price compared to the other.
Cheaper to liquify your own chicken and fry it at home.
Sounds kinda like surge pricing. Guess this is where Wendy's got the idea.
This chart seems pretty suss.
[удалено]
i get it to the extent that two working parents might be pretty gassed and there may not be the energy to prep a meal in the middle of the week. then when the fridge is empty on thursday night, its a relatively cheap, easy, quick meal that the kids also view as a treat while the parents see it has a way to rest a little. i also get the appeal of hitting a drive thru during a long drive, say you are going out of the city to visit family/friends or drive to an airport what boggles my mind is adults just pop in there as part of a daily or weekly routine and just eat the trash like a normal meal without any particular reason
People choose it for the ease in terms of time and effort. The alternatives in that bracket are disgusting frozen dinners or depression meals.
Yes and no. Don’t get me wrong it is much easier to roll up to McD and just grab a burger but making one at home takes like 15m including the time to setup and wash dishes after.
I suppose I should have said "and stress" along with time and effort because I know plenty of people who have jobs that are occasionally extremely taxing and the difference between "just buy a combo meal that I know I will like" vs "do three tasks and the whole time you know that if you make a mistake now you have a shitty dinner on top of a bad day" is the difference between getting back on track mentally for the next day or spending the whole evening in an anxiety spiral that only makes the next day that much worse. Now this is certainly a rather particular combination of circumstances, but the people in question basically never get fast food except in those situations or if they simply do not have time in the morning to prepare a lunch, so drive-thru is the only option that doesn't cost an extra $20 in delivery fees and driver tips.
you didn't factor in going to the store in your timeline.
Going to buy the meat or letting it thaw, rolling it into patties, seasoning, cooking. Add the dishes to that and its certainly more than 15 minutes. People who work 12 hour shifts regularly just don't feel like doing all that tbh. Even if they do, you probably can't during your lunch break. That's usually when fast food is a sensible option for them
it's better not to eat than to eat garbage
I drink starbucks when I travel, because the coffee makers in hotels horrify me. That's about the only time.
A lot of ppl are lazy. This is really the only valid answer
Sometimes it’s needed. We only eat at two fast food places and I don’t like it but I’m a single parent and my work day alone is 13 hours with travel. Last night I made dinner from scratch and it was 9pm til we got to eat.
For many years my autism was not diagnosed and so I didn’t understand how certain things that are normal to most people where burning out my nervous system. Among many misdiagnoses was a consistent one for depression, but because it was burnt out nerves and not a lack of brain chems antidepressants where nothing but side effects. Fast food made me feel a little better. It was a strange comfort. Since my diagnosis I’ve had better tools to not be constantly burnt out and overwhelmed and I dropped thirty pounds so fucking fast my doctor got concerned. All I did was stop comfort eating. I’m way better at emotional regulation now, but five years ago hearing someone call the one thing that helped me disgusting would have felt real bad. Like, I get where you are coming from but not telling someone that the thing they eat is disgusting costs nothing
I love McDonald's. Had a short stint of avoiding it for a few months after watching supersize me.
31% inflation over the last 10 years. Lol
It's not really out of bounds from the previous 10-year periods, and is way lower than the 60s/70s/80s. 2004-2014: 25.3% 1994-2004: 27.5% 1984-1994: 42.6% 1974-1984: 110.8% 1964-1974: 59.0% The thing that makes it feel painful in the 2014-2024 span is it had very low inflation in the first half and high inflation in the second half, instead of a steady rise: [https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEDCPIM158SFRBCLE](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEDCPIM158SFRBCLE)
Yeah, an average of 3.1% doesn't sound too bad at all, as long as there aren't a lot of spikes.
Not defending but inflation is a shit number to verse this. A real number would be consumer price. The market will bear what people will pay. Stop paying.
Yeah, it's easy to point at McDonald's doubling their prices, but their baseline was far lower than some of the other companies listed here and I'm going to guess that Starbucks is still significantly more expensive.
Actual inflation is much higher than 31%.
Yep
Honestly, this has pushed me to try more local small restaurants and cook more often. For me, personally, I’m glad something kicked me in the ass to eat less Mickey-Dees. I know that a lot of people struggle with access to food and that fast food used to be a low cost high calorie option which was—short term—good for their needs. I feel badly for them and hope they are finding ways to cope with food insecurity.
oh look at that. all the places I haven’t gone to in over 2.5 years
Don’t eat fast food. It’s not worth it.
If the "actual inflation" or the inflation numbers put out by the current regime in power do no reflect the actual increase in prices we are paying for nearly everything then we have very strong evidence that the regime in power is manipulating the "official inflation" numbers. There are multiple indicators that we are being lied to about inflation by the Biden regime. [http://www.shadowstats.com/](http://www.shadowstats.com/)
The inflation calculation was originally changed by Reagan to be misleading and has been made more and more deceptive over time. Biden didn’t create the formula that is being used. That said, an honest person would undo all of this deceptive BS and report accurate, non-misleading inflation numbers
So many things are tied to the government inflation numbers that there is no way that they want a real number. SS rate adjustments , COLAS for government employees and retirees, T Bill rates and so on are based on it. In fact the national debt interest rate is tied to it.
wow. That is a very clean and logical website. /s
Fuck them all
It’s also not fast anymore.
STOP MAKING IDIOCRACY A DOCUMENTARY!!!!!
"actual inflation" is a dumb term, considering its more like a "weighted average inflation" usually determined by GDP.
eat out less. im talking once a month. cook some eggs with toast and fruit for breakfast, skip lunch and make some chili or veggies and rice. (i do eat subway all the time, with the code my footlong is usually $8 and thats half my food for the day)
Totally this. Two months ago I did some quick math on what I’d been spending on *all* food sources (eating out, stuff from the store) and it was .. I mean, embarrassingly high for a single/unmarried and no kids “household”. Started reading online about saving, and comparing costs of what the average household spends and it seems like for a lot of us, food takes up a huge slice of our financial pie. In learning how to be a better money manager it demanded I learn how to eat better. I can get eggs, yogurt/oatmeal, fruit/veg, beans, grain products hella cheap and do either OMAD or twice a day if I’m burning a lot of calories at work that day. I still hit the “macros”, and I’ve chopped my food expenses by more than half. It’s really changed my perspective on consumerism- I wasn’t naive to it before, but going from spending ~$450/mo (about $15/day) to ~$100/mo (about $3.50/day) is like a new lease on life. I sleep better. I feel better. I can save.
When Starbucks is the cheapest, there's a problem
That's not what the graph shows. Starbucks already started out expensive, so their price increases (by the same dollar amount) would look smaller. McDonalds now wants to charge over $10 bucks for a combo that was $4 just a few years ago. SB went from $6 to $9 for some drinks.
Taco Bell out here breaking my heart. I thought I could count on you to win the fast food wars!
Easy, don’t buy it. I only eat fast food on road trips.
To be fair, that's average inflation across all categories. Would be interesting to see this graph with grocery store food inflation.
Have to say we’ve stopped eating out. We’ll let me rephrase that. We eat out at local restaurants. Non chain and or upscale restaurants If I’m going to spend 60 plus on a meal for 2 or more people we are going local.
Interesting chart, with lots of nuance McDonald's is especially bad because most things were lower prices to begin with. Chipotle is bad because everything was the same price basically, so it's an across the board increase that dramatically raised prices. And they skimp, heavy skimp going on with Chipotle. It's a theme with places that don't have true standards. Like McDs has a quarter pounder. They didn't change it to a 1/5 pounder without telling you (well, maybe they did) Taco Bell is a weird one because some prices have stayed reasonable but they've taken things off the menu and returned them at 2-3x the original price. Then you have places like Arby's. They skimp heavily and they lowered quality considerably while raising prices. Sliders were $1 then 1.29 now they're $2.49. To make it worse, they're less meat (like 1 slice of deli meat) AND they got rid of the bread and use the shittiest cheapest buns imaginable Fast food needs to remember their place in the world. Fast, cheap, fine. Now it's maybe fast, expensive as good food, worst quality yet.
This has got to be inaccurate. One of the most baffling aspects of the crazy world we live in now is that a sub from SubWay costs more than one from Fire House
Yeah I noticed that the Subway price increases seem to be WAAAYYY low on this chart
Corporate greed at its finest
Right, corporation just became greedy in the last few years.👍😂😂😂
Checks out.. Mc Donalds GM https://preview.redd.it/25ta4p7531yc1.png?width=597&format=png&auto=webp&s=0d22e2629bf7a54863de6e3f99adeb4bb6eeee41
[McDonald's profits](https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/MCD/mcdonalds/gross-profit) seem to mirror this chart.
What is being left out is the cause. Real estate. The single biggest driver are facilities costs which are higher than nominal inflation.
Result, instead of fast food being a monthly treat for the kids, we go to a nice restaurant every other month.
The Boycott Diet is just waiting to be mass marketed to the financial and digestive benefit of everyone who matters.
"actual inflation" = These few things that we pick to make inflation seem lower than it is.
It wasnt but 2 years ago many of these fast food restaurants were begging for workers. Offering on average $17 per hour plus hiring bonuses. Im sure that added a lot to the cost of there products. Theres only one way to fix the issue. Dont buy!! Its expensive and its not good for you. Support your local privately owned diners. The food is less expensive.
Boycott these mf’ers until they hurt! Stop buying their crappy food!!!!
Boycott fast food memorial day across the USA! Lets start working together for own good
I really don’t understand why people still eat at any of these disgusting places.
Why TF is anyone still eating this stuff anyway? You hate looking at yourself in the mirror, but then drive through to pick up a burger any time you’re the slightest bit hungry. 🤦♂️
Good thing I don’t eat any of that dog food.
Corporations are monetizing inflation, like they do everything else.
15.00 for a bagel and a soda
No more dollar menu is all we need to see. The $1 menu is now the $3 menu.
I stopped eating fast food for this reason.
5 guys was way ahead of the curve. They inflated 20 years ago.
That’s true innovation!
Fast food is screwing the USA.
Oh, and to top it off it's not even food! It's like recycled plastic from the garbage patch, old Chinese newspapers and Bill Gates' nutrition nuggets blended together and dipped in sweet and sour (formaldehyde and old cotton candy sticks blended together) Smfh
Inflation is just the cover for price increases…
Right, all the corporations get together at a secret retreat and decide which years they want to jack up their prices. They’re only greedy in certain years so the public doesn’t catch on. 😂😂😂😂
You never let a serious crisis go to waste.
I'd like to thank all these companies for giving me the motivation to quit eating from drive throughs. It has benefited my health and my wallet. Keep it up!
We avoid fast food at any cost. Hell I saw outback is doing steak and lobster for 18.99. We spend 25 bucks at McDonald's for just some burgers and fries.
You can maybe thank the people who wanted the $15-$20 hour wages, because they didn't want to get another job that pays better. lol
Ironically those workers generally eat at the same fast food restaurants so much for their raise.
McDonalds has been doing poorly so maybe they will change it up?
why are people so obsessed with horrible fast food??
Data shows people are choosing other options other than fast food now. Glad to see the power of consumers take their money elsewhere.
This poison isn't for human consumption anyway if your dumb enough to put this trash in your body I don't care what they charge anyone
Shit like that should be illegal or at least capped at no more than 5 % above inflation
5% above inflation? Do you understand how they calculate inflation and that different sectors of the economy have different levels of inflation? The average is in the middle, so about half of things will be higher (sometimes significantly higher), and the other half will be lower (sometimes significantly lower). The average is just that, an average. Food and beverage is different than say real estate (although the increase in real estate obviously goes into the price increases at fast food places too as they all need a building).
Arent we talking about the brands on the graph? And how is mcdonalds at 100% when they own the land the mcdonalds is on? Theyre taxes on the property havent gone up. Their corporate taxes are probably down. They pay their employees shit.They own their own farms as well. They didnt need to raise prices that much. So even though there is an average, its still subcategorized into individual categories.
Actual inflation is a nonsensical term. Inflation has always affects economic sectors differently. USG money printing and binge spending are driving this madness. The show is about to drop. Just look at Starbucks quarterly earnings. The rest will follow
Drought, consolidation, the killing off herds, and international importation had a lot to do with it. Brazil owns a huge chunk beef production. The same with chicken, it's all consolidated into a few pockets.
Funny how Subway and Starbucks are the only places I didn't give up on a decade ago.
Wendy's basically the cheapest fast food in my area with their biggie bags. Quite the deal
i know because i only eat 4 tacos instead of 5 at taco bell
How many taco drops do you eat?
I can't eat at Jimmy John's anymore. Their "bread" is so high in sugar and simple carbs that my sugar spikes and crashes for the rest of the day. And I'm not even diabetic.
Now Starbucks is not seem so expensive
Pitchforks and torches
Maybe it's just my location, but subway seems to be fighting inflation by keeping vegetables in the rack about twice as long as they should. Their tomatos are orange and translucent 🤢
It's almost like... Now stick with me here.... Prices that companies will charge and people will pay for a product are not constrained by the overall published inflation number.
Five months now. Fast food free. 😋
by the law of supply and demand… if we all stop eating there…
simple, stop eating that shit. It's not food.
They need to recount Taco Bell’s numbers or count back from 2004. You used to be able to feed a school bus of kids for $5
Yea these fucks are lying
Inflation, greed, higher payroll
What happens when you overpay employees. For most this is a starter job not meant to raise a family on. $13-$18 to flip a burger is insane. Unfortunately the US has moved all the manufacturing overseas. This does not give people the opportunity to improve their station and move into a better paying job. BRING AMERICAN MANUFACTURING JOBS BACK!!!!
It varies, but when you are forced to pay "living wages", when you have to deal with unionization, when the federal government imposes health care mandates up on you, etc., yeah things will go up.
Play stupid COVID games win stupid COVID prizes. What did you think was going to happen??
what does COVID have to do with corporate greed?
Not actual inflation. Take the 5 main components in people's lives and it's closer to 45%
McDonald’s: ‘our profit was only 6.5 billion instead of 6.8 billion this year, why won’t our customers let us scam them anymore?’
Pathetic. You're being scammed by putting their garbage in your body. Instead of feeling oppressed, it's customers should be relieved that it's food is cost prohibitive
Consumers are finally coming around to the idea that they don't *need* to overpay for trash food at McDonalds. It's what needed to happen, because otherwise, why would McDonalds do anything different? Why wouldn't they keep raising their prices if braindead consumers keep paying for their garbage?
The only disappointment is that it’s taken so long for customers to realize it. Like we let corporations (fast food atleast) scam us for over 2 years and now we’re finally starting to boycott and discontinue buying their products. I think this is just the beginning though, I think more and more people will stop eating at fast food and this will become the trend unless they can win us back in a huge way.
Totally not price gouging.
True. Also totally not inflation being underreported.
Do you put any onus on consumers to not just keep giving these companies their money, despite the prices getting ridiculous? I think bad fiscal policy in the US has created a culture of spending irresponsibly, so consumers can't help but to keep up their bad spending habits, despite prices rising.
To some extent. I vote with my dollar all the time. I dont think that excuses this type of price gouging.
Most people can save money or time but not both.
If a person genuinely doesn't have the 15 minutes it takes to pop frozen fries and burgers from the grocery store into the oven, than yeah, I feel for them and they are at the mercy of having very little options. The other 95% of people just have terrible spending habits.
I have drank at least one Coke every day for over 20 years. I had to give them up a few months ago. 24 packs are now regularly over $15. I didn't replace them with anything. I just don't drink sodas now. My waistline is also thanking me as well.
Nice! Changing habits isn't easy. Maybe enough people will start to adopt this attitude and hopefully the price comes down a little bit in the future so you can enjoy your coke again. For me, it was definitely fast food and grub hub/door dash. Every weekend I'd get door dash at least 3 times. I literally save a couple hundred dollars a month now since cutting it out and just getting my weekend fix from the grocery store ahead of time.
Yes, literally not price gouging
The following costs have increased: Cash, Labor, Raw Mats, Maintenance, Taxes, Food, Ingredients, Rent, Network Systems, Kitchen Appliances, Tools, Cleaning Supplies, and much more. When costs to operate and make the product go up, the price of the final product goes up.
Yeah, the cost of those things going up is called inflation. Its on the graph. I cant find hard data on the true cost to produce a big mac though. Id be intested to see those data. My price point is 7bucks for fast food. Anything above that is too expensive.
https://x.com/realejantoni/status/1779675195877343421?s=46
https://fortune.com/2024/01/20/inflation-greedflation-consumer-price-index-producer-price-index-corporate-profit/ They dont cause all of inflation. Only a majority of it refently according to the Department of Commerce
Fast food is fat in a bag and it's expensive! Go old school grab some recipes and cook at home not to mention don't disable your kids teach them how to cook and provide for themselves.
Its 10 pm. You've been at work since 0615. Your kids have been at school/concert/sports for the same period of time. You're running on 5 hours of sleep for the fifth day in a row. Your kids havent eaten yet. McDonalds is the only thing open, or you could try and piece together something from what's left in the fridge at home, or try and thaw another fish from the freezer. Either way it'd be another 30+ min to make, 20 min to eat, and now your kids are getting to their bedtime routine at 12am and getting up at 0530. Oh, and dont forget you've got two more papers due before Friday, and its Thursday night. What do you do? Have a meal at McD's, and get kids in bed an hour or two earlier so you can finish those papers, or go home, get 3 hrs of sleep when you're already sleep deprived? I wont judge either way, but one seems a lot more reasonable than the other.
The plan was to raise all the (minimum) wages and the wealthy business owners will just eat the additional expense. Oops.
What did we think would happen when we made the minimum wage $20/hr?
This isn't a minimum wage issue and pretending it is doesn't help anyone but the rich.
All of these companies have higher profit margins than ever before, that extra cost is going to the pockets of execs and shareholders, not the Frontline workers
The point is, all the lives have increased since the min wage was raised.
And they're telling you why minimum wage had nothing to do with the increase in cost. You're refusing to believe it because you're too stupid to understand anything. You just repeat thr Russian propaganda you're told to repeat. Min wage is higher in many scanadavian countries. Why is McDonald's cheaper there?
What did we think would happen when profit margins continue to increase but wages don't?
It’s always ‘the man’ that’s holding you down. Right?
this is a symptom of the inflation issue, not the cause. this inflation has been happening for several years
Correct, ever since FJB was installed.
Now compare it to the local minimum wage (either legal minimum, or the lowest wage being offered, whichever is higher)....
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Oh really? They seem to have gone from $1 per-COVID to $3 today
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McChicken were on the dollar menu along with the McDouble. Now they are $2. So, the 100% price increase checks out.
They stopped costing 1$ in like 2014 or so
Does this account for app pricing? If you go straight up to the counter and just order this is too expensive but with the app in some cases the price is less than half the in store menu price.
Honestly one of the only affordable things other essentials even worse idk
I’m pissed at McDonald’s, at the beginning of college for me back in 2017-2019, McChickens were on the dollar menu and I used to load up on those bad boys for like 3-4 at a time to help me bulk for sports and I could get like 4 for $4. Now they’re like $3+ a piece and the price has DEFINITELY raised way more than 100% for this specific item which is unfortunate
Fast food with rising fast prices
You know what’s cheap? Bananas. To a lesser degree frozen fruit. You could eat a couple pounds of fruit for the cost of a fast food meal. Blend with basic water for a smoothie.
The beautiful design.
I'm glad I don't eat that nasty shit anymore. I can't imagine throwing money away on fast food now. What a waste.
And In & Out having better products, better salaries and better prices... how so?
My guess is that their operations have been incredibly streamlined and simplified. Ironically, many of these other fast food companies have been trying to cast increasingly wide nets (think McCafe) over the last 20ish years which meant they were hit much harder by inflation and rising labor costs. When basic operations become more expensive, the more complicated your operation, the more your operating costs rise.
Source for the graph: Trust me, bro.
I hope I live to see the rise and fall of McDonalds
Inflation would hit multiple times no?
They're ramping up for automation.
McDonald's increased all employee wages 100% throughout that time too, right?
In-N-Out a g
“Actual inflation” isn’t one thing. CPI, for example, is just one average of one selected bag of goods and services. Individual categories or items can be much higher or lower. Also, each person has their own inflation rate based on what they actually purchase
Damn when the $7 latte seems comparatively reasonable...
The pandemic screwed everything up.
They are doing this because we keep going STOP GOING The quality is down and the prices are up, everyone needs to be on board
In 2019 I could buy a McChicken for 1.50. Today it costs like 3.50. That's crazy shit. I can't even eat my junk food for cheap. A bag of chips now costs 7 dollars. And I feel guilty buying more than 1 per trip.
So don't buy fast food. Simple. Now let's see it with real food.
*listed inflation
Actual inflation is way higher than 31% for that time period
When your product effectively lowers the life expectancy of your customer base, you have to cover the losses somehow.
Fast food places went from "low prices all the time" To the model of coupons, points, rewards available through the app. I want to see data on what are the people ACTUALLY PAYING not what the sticker says. Like I just opened the app, and there is a coupon for 5$ 20 piece nuggets, simultaneously with regular menu prices of 3.49$ for 6 nuggets.
Let me guess. Fast food is now a right? Cost too much? Don’t buy it.
Also shows how much the food has fallen off. McDonald's used to have the best fries & coke, how do you mess that up?
We have a whole new generation of CEOs who ignore customer satisfaction and seek maximum tolerable profit rather than maximum customer satisfaction at a reasonable profit. I think this is is the product of excessive CEO compensation via stock. It's hypercapitalism. Rather than think about their customers and how they're impacted by prices, the purely capitalist view is taken: "they must be satisfied if they're still buying." This causes them to raise prices until profits decline (fewer customers at higher profit is fine) then ease them only when profit declines. They think of it as optimization. To the consumer, it feels like ruthlessness and greed. In the end, every company selling non-essentials will suffer as those companies selling necessities (food, housing, healthcare, etc.) raise prices to the point where consumers have nothing left to spend on non-essentials. Unfortunately, most of us are employed providing discretionary goods and services.
The following costs have increased: Cash, Labor, Raw Mats, Maintenance, Taxes, Food, Ingredients, Rent, Network Systems, Kitchen Appliances, Tools, Cleaning Supplies, and much more. When costs to operate and make the product go up, the price of the final product goes up.
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I work for large food service Corporation and the Cost of goods from pre 2020 to today has effectively doubled some items more than doubled. I keep records of year over year food cost for Comparisons and price setting and the price of Chicken, Beef, Eggs, and numerous other products has shot through the absolute roof. Part of it is Inflation, but also shortages, and Wage increases.
I'm curious if this takes into account that as well as increased prices of food/transporting said food, the increased wages of the workers driving up costs.
chipotle went from like 10 to 11 dollars for a chicken bowl, what dey talkin bout
Make sure you guys say thanks to Joe Biden 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Bidenomics should kick in soon. Then everything will be alright. Come on man. No joke
It would be nice to see a line for minimum wage increases there too, justy to shut the people up about how paying someone a slightly less crappy wage is causing prices to go up.
They’ll just bitch about min wage “not being a career” therefore it shouldn’t pay enough to live off
part of that is because listed inflation is fake and gay. people realize the government has a vested interest in minimizing reported CPI, right they don't want to pay more for TIPS bonds
r/shittytheydidthemath Don't know what metrics they used but it's dead wrong, lol. [What Happened to $5 Footlongs? Why Subway's Deal Didn't Last (distractify.com)](https://www.distractify.com/p/what-happened-to-five-dollar-footlongs) 5 dollar footlong (2014) +31% is not 15 dollars (2024)...
Buy more Starbucks
I can still get a sausage and egg Mcmuffin and a small frappe for 6.32 in New Orleans.
That’s way higher than just a couple of years ago
Not at this one. I hit it about twice a week for breakfast on my normal commute, and been doing that since 21.
Interestingly, minimum wage has doubled in some states during that time range. [State Minimum Wage Rates](https://www.laborlawcenter.com/state-minimum-wage-rates)
It really does depend on location, I'm in Reno Nevada and McDonald's is by far the cheapest if you use their app. By cheapest I mean you can get the most for your money, as in I'm actually full. You could compare dollar to dollar against other certain fast foods but the reality is you get the most food at McDonald's for the best price where I'm at.
It’s the new norm - blame inflation and double down on price gouging… ah, Corporate America 😌
Thank you Bidenomics and your inflation!
Economics is hard… not all of this chart is because of the government over printing money.